The experience required to be promoted to Rank 6 was simply colossal. Only the Oracle knew how many Digestors he would have to kill on B842 to accumulate enough experience points to be promoted again. On that level, it was better to play Ordeals.
After a short interruption, a new notification appeared.
[Reward n°2: Pure Myrmidian Blood, for getting Lucia's favor with a rating above 200.]
[Reward n°3: Pure Kinthar Blood, for getting Gerulf's favor with a rating above 200.]
Jake was thrilled to receive these two rewards, but he couldn't understand how the Oracle had obtained the blood of these two people. On the other hand, he couldn't feel his body and had obviously brought nothing with him from this world.
[The Oracle's Genetic and Aetheric Database is immeasurable.] Xi explained. [The Oracle System is supposed to work in these Ordeals, which means that these worlds have been scanned and are part of the System. So the Oracle knows all about the genetics and Aether of its inhabitants.]
" Oh... Makes sense. " Jake said with a deep sense of insignificance.
At that moment, an interface similar to an online store appeared in his mind with all kinds of Rewards. These were classified into different categories with a price displayed next to them that seemed to match his Rating.
Reward n°4: Ordeal Store, 305 credits to spend. If they are not used, they will be saved for the next Ordeal. Sergeant Rewards and below available for purchase.]
"Nice! "
Now, that was a reward system that he liked. He wasn't the compulsive online shopper type, but it made him feel like he had some kind of control over his destiny.
[Categories:]
[Aether/Genetic Code Enhancements]
[Knowledge and skills]
[Aether Skills]
[Oracle Device Skills/Upgrades]
[Objects/ Machinery/Vehicles]
[Organic/inorganic materials]
While surfing the interface, Jake discovered all sorts of rewards, each one more tempting than the last. Especially the Aethers Skills section was super exciting. Some of them could immediately change his life like this one for example:
Aether Skill lvl 1: The ability to control objects at a distance by thinking within the range of your Extrasensory Perception. Price: 500 credits.]
"Ugh..." He felt depressed right away.
Even after an entire Ordeal he didn't have enough to buy these kinds of skills. There were other, more affordable skills like Lamine's Perfect Sight or Amy's Frenzy, but from his point of view it wouldn't do him much good with his current stats.
Lamine's Perfect Sight was incredible, but this skill only really shone in the hands of an experienced sniper like him. At close range, Jake never missed his target either, thanks to his Agility and high Perception. Besides, there were several types of Perfect Sight and only the most basic Perfect Sight was affordable.
As for Frenzy, there were several versions with the price increasing exponentially each time. Amy's version that temporarily doubled the Strength and Perception was lvl 1 and costed 200 points.
Jake then lost interest in those Aether Skills, that were far too expensive for him, to focus on the second category "Knowledge and Skills".
This one was completely different from the first category. All kinds of skills were listed from Cooking to Swordplay. A number of points were associated for each of these skills corresponding to the level of proficiency, sometimes with an associated grade like Novice or Beginner.
The Oracle could directly transfer the knowledge of a particular skill or knowledge to the brain, but the prices were very high. For about 100 credits, he could get the experience of a freshly graduated professional in the field or skill of his choice, which corresponded to a skill proficiency of 50 pts, or Beginner, the level just after Novice.
The problem was that there were also skills where getting just a few mastery points required more than 500 credits.
There again, his 305 credits would have quickly been wasted. He then scrolled through the catalogue of the other categories, but each time the appallingly high prices would remind him of how poor he was.
Eventually, he turned his attention back to the second category again and an idea came to him.